It’s been reported that QA company Quantic Lab could have deceived CD Projekt and failed at testing Cyberpunk 2077. However, several CDPR devs have claimed that they knew about the bugs, blaming mismanagement for the game’s state.
Over the weekend, YouTuber Upper Echelon Gamers released a video about Cyberpunk 2077’s botched launch, citing a 72-page document sent by an anonymous whistleblower from Romania-based company Quantic Lab.
- Quantic Lab, which previously helped CDPR with testing The Witcher 3, allegedly exaggerated the size of its team to keep the contract with the Polish developer.
- The QA company requested its employees to report at least 10 bugs daily, which led to Cyberpunk 2077 devs receiving hundreds of reports on all uncritical bugs.
- On top of that, Quantic Lab assured CD Projekt that its team consisted of experienced testers. However, most people testing the game were juniors with under six months of experience in the industry.
After the report made the headlines, YouTuber LegacyKillaHD spoke to his own sources at CD Projekt. Here’s what they said about Cyberpunk 2077 and Quantic Lab:
- CDPR devs knew about the bugs, but didn’t have time to focus on them and fix them;
- “We were crunching like crazy so we were paper thin at the end,” an anonymous employee said;
- Quantic Lab’s role was minimal, especially with more critical bugs that required in-depth involvement from the core team;
- The developers blame the issues on mismanagement, with one employee saying that “it’s not like we’re morons & spend hours on obviously bad bugs”;
- “Devs were warning management about it & the response they received was essentially ‘don’t worry about it, we have it handled.’ They did not,” LegacyKillaHD wrote. “From the discussions I’ve had, a lot of anger [is] directed at management. Many [are] happy to have left.”
So essentially the builders knew of the problems. One dev said they would be morons to not have known the state of their own game. Builders just chose to sell the house anyway, thinking they could fix it later on.
— Michael (@LegacyKillaHD) June 27, 2022
The Cyberpunk 2077 launch was a huge blow for CD Projekt and its reputation among players. Although the company has managed to fix most of the critical issues, the whole controversy still affects its business. Earlier this month, CD Projekt shares dropped to 2018 lows, with market analysts lowering the target price to $12.8 per share.